Trump's Massive EU Trade Deal Explained, Sacred Heart Seminary Purge, And Influencer Priests

And we're live. Welcome back to the LOOPcast, brought to you by The Loop, every American Catholic's favorite morning newsletter. Go sign up if you haven't already. It's Tom, Erika, and Josh. LOOPcast, lads. LOOPcast, loaded. I don't know what we're calling it going forward. Back together. Check and decide. The gang's back together. We're ready for a great Monday show, and we're looking at, this isn't just a Trump exaggeration, kind of classic hyperbole, the largest trade deal ever is being valued at between the United States and the EU.

A much-needed win, and you know it's a win when you look at mainstream media, and they're even like, I can't. This is good. I'm going to do my best job to explain it all to you very simply, so we can walk away understanding. Second one, we have Sacred Heart Major Seminary in my old stomping grounds in Detroit has come into the spotlight after some high-profile firings. Josh kind of mentioned it briefly. We've gotten another one, so Erika has a lot of thoughts and experience on that, so we're going to be covering that entire thing.

Big news weekend for my state of Michigan. Yeah, finally, we've got to go over to Traverse City. We had the really tragic stabbings over there, but some... Silver lining, as well as some heroics. We are going to cover that. And there's an influencer priest, hot priest thing going on around. I'm going to be happy to cover in the Twilight Zone, so don't worry. It's going to be a great show. Good news, Twilight Zone, always there. But before we get into it, a warm welcome to everyone here, live in the chat, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 11 a.m.

Eastern. So glad to have you guys here, and happy to have Erika back for the show. And Erika, before we get into the show, what do we have? We have the Cunningham team at Inspire Advisors. They are sponsors for today's program. Do you realize? That your family's investment portfolio can be a powerful weapon to help restore Christian values in today's culture. I mean, who is not on board with that mission? Do you know you can invest well and not offend God?

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Thank you for sponsoring the episode. All right, let us get into it here. So, Trump announces massive trade deal. This happened over the weekend. So, we get, I believe this is in Scotland they're getting this done, which is hilarious. It's at a Trump resort over in Scotland. So, Trump is even hosting the EU and the EU. So, we have a European Commission, President Ursula von der Leyen announcing a preliminary trade deal at Trump's Turnberry Golf Resort in Scotland, averting a potential trade war ahead of this August 1st deadline.

So, for those wondering about context, the U.S.-EU trade relationship. Is the world's largest valued at approximately $1.7 trillion annually? However, Trump has long criticized the EU for what he perceives as unfair trade practices, pointing to the $235.6 billion U.S. goods trade deficit with the EU in 2024.

And before we get into the specifics of this deal, I mean, I couldn't even get over some of the questions reporters were asking about this deal. What are the U.S. concessions? What is the U.S. giving up in the deal?

So, the starting point was an imbalance, a surplus on our side and a deficit on the U.S. side. And we wanted to rebalance the trade relation, and we wanted to do it in a way that trade goes on between the two of us. Across the Atlantic, because the two biggest economies should have a good trade flow between us, and I think we hit exactly the point we wanted to find. Rebalance, but enable trade on both sides, which means good jobs on both sides of the Atlantic, means prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic, and that was important for us.

So, I think that was like politician speak for no concessions. Is that what I just heard? She did it very delicately and deftly, but again, Axios had the same thing. They said, in the Trump-dominated global economy, the U.S. gets plenty, but gives nothing in return.

Now, you know what it is? We are turning the table around, the shame table, right? This idea that we are supposed to be the chicken that everyone plucks their feathers from. I am sick of this stuff, and so was Trump. Why are we doing this? Why do we have to give these glorious trade deals and then let them turn around and put levies on all our exports to their countries?

And so, Trump, I think, was ingenious. He's like, he just starts out his term, he's like, slaps massive tariffs on everyone, and he goes, okay, you got to negotiate for something better. And he basically called, you know, he called everyone's bluff. It's like, hey, you know, this is going to be jacked up on August 1st. If you don't do something about it, I think it's brilliant.

Yeah. So, a little bit into the tariff structure, because it is unique in some respects. So, now there's going to be a 15% baseline tariff. The U.S. will impose a 15% tariff on most EU exports to the United States, including automobiles, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors. This is a significant increase from the pre-Trump average of 4.8%, but lower than the 30% Trump had threatened. And there are certain exemptions to this, such as aircraft, plane parts, specific chemicals, generic drugs, semiconductor equipment, and some agricultural products.

That will face zero tariffs, but there's actually not much going between the two nations in that respect, so that made sense. Steel and aluminum, a 50% tariff on EU steel and aluminum remains in place, though von der Leyen suggested a potential quota system could replace these tariffs with further negotiations. And then pharmaceuticals, EU pharmaceuticals will face a 15% tariff, but Trump committed to capping any future increases at this rate, even after pending US national security investigation into the sector. As you notice, that is 15% tariff on EU exports, but 0% on American exports going into the EU, and that is why a lot of people are kind of like, where are the concessions here from the United States?

And that does not even get into some of the unique commitments. We have energy purchases. The EU agreed to purchase $750 billion in U.S. energy, that is liquefied national gas, oil, and nuclear fuels over three years, reducing reliance on Russian energy, which is a big positive, I think, for the West in general. The EU pledged $600 billion in additional investments in the U.S., including in pharmaceuticals, automotive industries, and military equipment, and as I mentioned before, zero tariffs on U.S. goods.

The EU agreed to open its markets to certain U.S. exports with zero tariffs. Those specifics on that remain unclear, and I think it's important to note, too, at this point, this is a framework. It hasn't been signed yet, and there are going to be some haggling going on behind the scenes, but we will likely probably see something in this shape. Come to place at some point. So, the specifics are not done. I just want to say that before we get into any of it, but this is what we know at this point.

Yeah, and then just for context sake, too, so now countries that have had deals so far, as Josh said, Trump came into office and basically upended the kind of previous post-World War II open free trade model and said, hey, we're getting screwed by this. We need a different arrangement. Throw out the high tariffs, and people are going to come to the table. So far, we have the United Kingdom, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Japan, now the European Union, 27 member states in there.

Well, it is not just the trade deals, too. What we are seeing, you know, I would welcome the United States to have a reset as well on how it conducts foreign policy because, again, it is one of those things where The dominant view in the aftermath of World War II, like what you saw, we had to put the United Nations located in New York. Where else were you going to put it? You weren't going to put it in Germany? You weren't going to put it in Paris?

It was in Rumbles. You know, like, what, you're going to put it in London? You had to put it in New York, right? And we had this generous policy, the Marshall Plan, to try to lift up these Western European countries in the immediate aftermath of World War II. I mean, that's good. But then we somehow got it in our mind that we should have A pure altruistic foreign policy that, like, what is the best that you can do? Who cares about our own country?

Like, wait, what? Like, no, like, that's not good. And China comes along, they're like, to these, you know, countries in South America and Africa, and they're like, hey, would you like some investment in your country? And these countries are like, yeah, absolutely, China. So, China comes in and helps them mine their minerals and do this other stuff, and they build this infrastructure. But dude, China's getting like 70% of the profit. You know what I'm saying? Like, hey, we're not just doing this because we like you.

We're intending to make money off of this arrangement. You'll still get something out of it, too. It's not like we're just, it's not like maybe the perception of 16th century colonialism. Like, no, you'll get something out of it, too, but, you know, it's definitely a good arrangement for us, and the United States policy for the longest time has been, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we're going to do this out of the goodness of our hearts.

I do not know if I would say that. I would push back on that. Oh, yeah. Trust me. The bureaucrats of the State Department have always wanted us to do this. We do not care about our own country. I am not talking about the wars. I am talking about just foreign policy stuff. Foreign policy is to crank out checks left and right and go crazy.

Well, yeah. To me, there's a policy of empire building. I mean, you saw it up into the lead-up of the Cold War, and then after the Cold War, all these opportunities to expand American influence, and then be the beneficiaries of this kind of globalized economy. And I think, man, if anyone since 2020 could talk about the events going on around the world that might suggest to us that we are no longer the emperors that we thought that we were, to me, Trump comes in as like, all right, it's now basically time for war footing in some ways, like China's a real threat.

Russia is a real threat that we've tried to deal with and have very unsuccessfully done so. I mean, even the sanctions, economic sanctions, our relationship with them was so small to begin with, and if anything, they've come out of this hardened, more prepared with a sustainable internal economy, which is a nightmare for anyone in the West. So, to me, it's like, well, we can't keep propping up an economic system in which the entire West is kind of America broadly, like a broader America.

We need to contract. We need to refocus, and we actually need to take care of people inside of our own country. That was the message of the campaign. I think it has been kind of a challenge, obviously, once you get in the driver's seat, to actually make that happen, fighting all the different forces you are. You are absolutely right. I mean, because it is like not just these trade deals, but as it, you know, reasserting our dominance in the Panama Canal, as opposed to China.

Yeah. I was just going to bring that up. Yeah. Talking about the Arctic trade routes, you know, by Greenland and all that kind of stuff. This is a president that has a realistic understanding of what the world is like.

We are not frozen in this 1995 moment where the Soviet Union has collapsed, and the United States is the only game in town. China is a very dominant force, and it is going to be stronger over the next 25, 30 years before their population.

It starts to go downwards in a significant manner, and in fact, that might make them desperate. So, again, this is why you need to be ready for this kind of stuff. Yeah, it was neat watching Trump walk through all of this and sort of the journey since Liberation Day when the huge tariffs were announced, and people on all sides of the aisle just lost their minds. Like, by July, we're all going to be impoverished. We won't have any money coming in that's just going to blow up the economy.

It just hasn't happened, because like you said, people are going to come to the table. And this is where Trump is clearly at his most comfortable. It's like, it's the art of the deal. I'm not going to negotiate. And this was just his lane, right? Because a lot of the things we've been talking about the last few weeks, it seems like there isn't a clear plan. We don't really know what we're doing, like the Jeffrey Epstein stuff, the Middle East and the war and all that.

But with this kind of a project that Trump is on, this is his thing. This is where he's the master of it is. Yeah, and so it was neat to watch him just get in that driver's seat and get it done.

It's stunning. Zero percent tariffs for us. I mean, what this suggests to me, by the way, is that we always could have done this. Right? I mean, really, what was stopping us basically from balancing trade? Yeah, exactly. Like, we could have. Like with the border. The philosophy changed. Clearly, we could have done this. We have the leverage here. There's no doubt. Why would they ever accept 0% tariffs and no concessions from America? And then, I'd like to make the point, too, because I think people miss this in the tariff conversation because they're like, well, this is going to pass on costs to consumers.

It's going to cause inflation. It's going to get worse. I mean, go take a look at the CPI right now. I would disagree. At least an implementation so far that actually has caused that. But the difference is, we have tailored individual trade plans to include investments, or to take off barriers of specific industries. I'm trying to think of good examples, like what we were working with in Japan.

They've now, I think they were going to invest in energy in our country, so in the billions of dollars, or they're going to take off certain restrictions that existed before. I think in India, they're talking about search and seizure, or customs, or something like that. It's like, that's ridiculous, take it off. Like, if you want to do business with the country, you're going to have to do that. Thank you for watching. So, the way that it came out, very shock and awe, very art of the deal, but the way that it is now coming down is, you came to the table, we disagree with X, Y, and Z, change that if you want to come work with the biggest economy in the world, use our leverage here.

So, that is just what I have observed to be happening. It is just nice, though, to have trade deals, foreign aid, and military operations to be aligned towards our national interests rather than promoting, you know. Gay comic books in Peru. I mean, that is one extent where you are like, Donald Trump was right. For a long time, our country was governed by a bunch of idiots.

Yeah. With an auto pen. Much-needed political win, too, might I add. Like you said, Erika, a lot of turbulence, may you add, and so this just seems like, okay, breath of fresh air, you get out in front of it again. And at the end of the day, if he delivers on this, a lot of those other issues that I think, Josh, you've really hammered the nail on this, like people are like, how much is Epstein going to matter? Transparency, are people going to care about that in four years from a political level?

We'll see. It remains to be seen. But if the economy is roaring in three years, Yeah, I think it's going to be hard for any of that to go away. Yeah. Vance has been real quiet, too, by the way. I read that thing in Politico this morning about him kind of operating in the shadows, because you haven't gotten the same glowing profiles, and he hasn't been thrown under the bus, say, like Kamala was, to be the border czar, to put her in charge of maybe the worst issue of the Biden administration.

Well, you don't want that. Yeah, why is that, Josh? I'm curious. J.D. Vance is chairman of the finance at RNC, so he's going all around the country. You know, communicating with the largest, you know, donors and people who support the Republican Party, and he's saying, hey, what can you, you know, what can we do to make your business better? You know, he's trying to, you know, I got the ear into the, you know, to the boss, let's go. And he's going around the country raising, you know, tons of cash and making good friends with everybody.

So, he's well-positioned for 2028. Can you dig on that, too? Because I saw that the RNC right now heading into the midterms has, I think, in the 80s? And then the DNC is working in the 10s, I think 10s and 20s. It's a massive- So, what is that, just for people that don't understand, because I feel like it's, behind the scenes, it's a constant fundraising cycle to be able to succeed. So, what would an advantage like that, how does that materialize, and how does that work?

I mean, ironically enough, Donald Trump was outspent in all three of his presidential races, but I think, again, money isn't everything. A message is still the most important thing, but if you do not have enough money, you need at least enough money to get that message out, obviously. Hillary Clinton, you know, spent way more money than Donald Trump in 2016. He still won. He had the better message, but when it comes to these congressional races, you know, if the Republicans could actually have a significant fundraising advantage, boy, that would be great, because first of all, Democrats had relied on government money to sort of push through to their, you know, Left-wing organizations to gin up voter turnout, that kind of stuff, while we cut off a bunch of these USAID things.

It feels like all of a sudden, all these things that got propped up, even news media companies, they're like, whoa, this is kind of crazy how much of the left was subsidized through our taxpayer dollars. We are fighting these guys with money from our own pockets. It was frustrating. Like, my gosh. So not only do we have the war chest, right, the Republican war chest is like massive right now, but also. We've depleted the supply for the Democrat war chestnut. Right, and again, I still make the point that the message matters, but the thing is, the Republicans would normally have the tougher go of it in a midterm election, because the party that's in control of the White House usually loses seats in the midterm elections for House and the Senate.

But the fact is, I still feel like Democrats are in major disarray. The Wall Street Journal poll came out, and it showed Democrats' approval of the Democratic Party in Congress was at the lowest level it had been in well over 30 years, and that is because even Democrats are frustrated and upset with what they got. They want more of the same. Harder, stronger, fighter. That is why the Illinois governor, J.D.B. Pritzker, is in North Carolina saying, are you ready to fight?

Are you ready to fight? Get out of here. Well, we will see. They got the two-term moderate governor, Roy Cooper, to decide he is going to run for the United States Senate in North Carolina. So, this is Democrats like, see, we can put forward these sensible, boring-sounding moderates who will say stuff like what Gavin Newsom was saying. Well, I do not know. It kind of makes me feel nervous about boys and girls boards. But when it comes to it, they are still going to be liberal.

Like, Roy Cooper was the governor, and the bill came on his desk, if a baby survives an abortion, you know, you should, like, protect the baby, like, give it food and water, like, don't just let it die on the table, and he refused to sign it. So, like, this is funny, like, John and Martin, all these liberal reporters, like, oh, it's going to be hard for Republicans to say that Roy Cooper is a radical.

Yeah, no, it won't be. That sounds pretty radical to me, yeah. That sounds pretty radical to me. Yeah. Okay, on to the next story here. This is... Okay, so Josh, you... And... Tom left. Here he's back. That's a conspiracy to keep me from talking about my... Actually, it's so funny. If I would have gone to seminary, I would have gone to Sacred Heart Mantra Seminary. I grew up in the Detroit Diocese.

I actually, so Josh, you talked about it. I'm not, I'm kind of unfamiliar with the legacy of, say, Sacred Heart Major Seminary or the three men that have been removed by the Archbishop at this point. So, Erika, if you could just give a brief background, what was the reputation of Sacred Heart? Who are these guys that got removed and say, why are people upset about it? Well, so back in the day, like when 90s, early 2000s, Sacred Heart was attracting teachers who were very orthodox.

So, we got like Dr. Janet Smith was at Sacred Heart for many, many years. Father Francis Martin, not to be confused with Ralph Martin, who just got fired, but it also attracted a lot of people who were associated with the Catholic charismatic renewal. So, love of Jesus, deep love of the scriptures, married to a true doctrinal orthodoxy. And I know Josh touched on it. As of Friday morning, we knew of the termination of two of the older members of the faculty.

So, Ralph Martin, on July 23rd, Dr. Ralph Martin. 1882 was terminated after working at the seminary since 2002, and Eduardo Echeverria, who is 74, also was terminated after teaching there since 2003. So, these are long-time appointments. Sorry, Dr. Martin, not Father Martin, was a professor of theology, director of graduate programs in the New Evangelization, which was like the flagship program of Sacred Heart Seminary, really set it apart from other seminaries. We had... Ecevedo is a professor of theology and philosophy, but then later on that day, we learned that a third professor, Ed Peters, who is younger, he is known for a canon lawyer, he is the first American ever appointed to the apostolic signatura.

He is the father of our good friend Thomas Peters. Yes. Well, if you remember the American Papist. The American Papist. So, very well respected canon lawyer. He had also received a termination notice from Archbishop Weisenberger on July 25th that terminated his contract. He says that he's actually retained counsel. He asks for prayers for everyone affected by these firings. But this was like the night of the long knives. This was, and I think our friend Phil Lawler made this point in a column this week, that what the Archbishop could have done, and one would think that You know, fraternal charity would demand is, okay, you know, Ralph Martin's getting up there, mid-80s, we've got another guy mid-70s, calls him into his office and says, you know, at the end of this coming year, we're just going to have a big retirement party.

I think he said, here's your gold watch. Thank you for your service to the church, but your position's being opened up for younger. Like, that would have been the decent thing to do if you want to, you know, change the Change the tone of the seminary to match your own theological predilections, which we'll get into in a moment. But no, this is a month before classes open, and just in terms of the academic schedule, this timing is bizarre. You just send a letter to like three of these highly respected scholars and just be like, you're done.

And no explanation given. What do they do? I mean, Ed Peters, Walt Martin had done, like, I don't know about it for you, had done the mildest of critiques of things that Pope Francis had done. Not personal, questions of doctrine, like, why is the X being done? It seems awkward, you know. Again, it really brings to a point, you know, because this new Archbishop of Detroit was one of the last appointments done by Pope Francis.

And it really gets to the point where, is criticizing Pope Francis beyond reproach? Yeah, but this is where, I think everyone needs to listen to this first. This was an interview that Ralph Martin did when his book came out, Crisis in the Church. And, you know, it was also the time when Taylor Marshall was saying things like, Pope Francis is a heretic, and, you know, he's the anti-Pope. Other people were saying, oh, the chair is vacant, and all this. Well, this is how Ralph Martin, who just...

Scott Fyred actually approached the question. This was with Matt Fred, and I think we should just listen to the tone here. Francis does not qualify. As a heretic. A heretic is somebody who persists against all kinds of reasoning and dialogue on a position that's clearly outside the pale of the church. Pope Francis isn't doing that.

He's making maybe... Foolish comments and prudent comments, not well-thought-out comments, false comments, that type of thing, but he's not formally teaching, he's not persisting in holding to a viewpoint that's outside Catholic faith. For example, when Bishop Schneider went to fraternally talk to him about his comment that God wills the diversity of religions, When Bishop Schneider reported on the conversation, he said, Pope Francis just meant to say that God permits the diversity of religions, not that he wills it, type of thing.

And then Bishop Schneider said, could you please publicly make that... Distinction, because a lot of people are feeling like you're saying all roads lead to God type of thing, which would be religious indifferentism, which would be deporting from the Catholic faith. So, Pope Francis never publicly made that clarification, but he hasn't persisted in a formal way in teaching error.

Again, the Catholic left goes crazy. They're like, well, this is what happens when you are against the Pope, like where Peter is, or when Peter- Ivory was dancing on this. Yeah, Ivory's dancing on this, where Peter is. Mike Lewis came out and said, well, these guys deserve it because they're against the magisterium. I'm like, you just listen to Dr. Martin there.

Yes. He is trying to keep people inside the church. Exactly. That is what Robert Martin is trying to do. He is trying to talk people off the edge. Don't leave the Catholic Church because of what you thought Pope Francis said. You know, hey, hold on. Like, stay with the faith. Like, this is an act of charity. He is at service to the church in what he is saying right here. That is what frustrates me so much. Same tone from Echevarria. So, Echevarria writes for the Catholic thing pretty regularly, which is a Oh, great.

If you are not subscribed to the Catholic thing, I read the loop first in the morning, and then I read the Catholic thing. And so, that is just a great way to start the day. Is it paying you to say that? Yeah.

Marcus, get on that. Yeah. But again, his tone is always, this was confusing what Pope Francis said. Here is what the church teaches. Wouldn't it be great to get a clarification? That is not even close to saying that the Pope is a heretic, that the Pope is apostatizing. And so, for the Catholic left to come out and be like, well, it serves these guys right, it's just... No, I mean, the Catholic left wants clericalism. They wanted obey, you know, shut up, agree with everything Pope Francis said, and how he said it, even if it was sloppy and confusing.

You know, yay! Like, you guys, you know, have met the enemy, and it's you. Like, don't you understand? Like, you always railed against clericalism, and now you're like the biggest clericalists of all. Can I ask, what was the explanation given to these men fired at? At a bizarre time, right before the semester. They are offered no explanation. They asked for it, and they got none. Like, the bishop's like, no, no, I'm not really going to do that. Yeah, Martin said that the bishop mentioned, the archbishop mentioned something, quote, about having concerns about my theological perspectives, and that was it.

No explanation. What, also, what an odd. Amorphous, theological perspectives? Have I taught anything that is heretical? You know what I mean? Well, that might get us promoted. Right, but I am not super familiar with seminaries. I imagine firings are pretty rare.

Yeah, and this is the point I made on Twitter over the weekend. It is like, why is it that left-wing Catholics never seem to get fired? James Martin, hello, Father James Martin. But like conservative Catholics, they get the ax.

And again, this Archbishop of Detroit, it's like, you've only been the Archbishop of Detroit since February, and what you've done is suppress the Latin mass in the Archdiocese of Detroit. You went on a protest of ICE, okay? So, you're protesting the law enforcement officials who are prosecuting people who are in this country illegally. If you think immigration law should be changed, fine. You know, you have every right to make that point, petition, go to your representatives in Congress and protest, but protesting ICE as if they're the one, you know, we've had this stain in our country, people like attacking ICE.

It's like, look, these are law enforcement officers, young men and women who are doing what we're asking them to do. Do not protest them. So, he protests ICE officers, he suppresses the Latin mass, and now he acts as three.

The sensible, conservative-leading Catholic people at the Sacred Heart Major Seminary, which, by the way, in the 80s was horrendous, and it has had this renaissance over the last 30 years, and now I feel sorry for, you know, I know men who are seminaries at this. The school, they're heading back to school, and I'm just, they have my prayers, because it's like a completely different school now. You've got to wonder, like, well, are we going to transfer to another school? Should I go to the Josephine and, you know, Columbus or Cincinnati or whatever it is?

Should I go to other places? Diocese are going to, are second guessing whether or not they should send them to Sacred Heart Middle Seminary? You know, it's not even a question of like, is this Archbishop evil? I'm not trying to say that. It's like, What a dunderhead move. Like, every other professor there now is going to be like, is he coming to me next? And who's going to want to work there? Can I ask the just clarifying question? So, how is it decided what seminary you end up at?

Because I know people that do different orders, and then they will go somewhere else. Is there one you are supposed to go to if you want to become a priest? Everyone has their own rules or whatever. So, the men who are in seminary for my diocese up here in Northern Michigan, some of them are going to Sacred Heart, some are going to the Josephine, I think that is in Columbus, if I remember correctly, or whatever.

There is not a set determinant, necessarily. Some dioceses are large enough to have their own seminary. Right, and sometimes it depends on your age as well. So, like, St. John's Seminary up in Boston tends to take older vocations, like men. Yeah, there is one in the Midwest here in Wisconsin, too, that does that. Yeah, and then the younger guys will go somewhere like Mount St. Mary's, Emmitsburg, here in the East, and then do maybe, some of them will do a year or two in Rome at the NAC.

But yeah, it is up to the bishop, ultimately. Do all of the seminaries try to court people actively, so that they can get more? I cannot speak to how that works. I have no idea how it works. Yeah, I don't either. I am sure that, you know, they talk to the different bishops and probably make presentations or whatever, you know, when the bishops all get together. Maybe there are people from the different seminaries. I do not know how that, I cannot speak to that.

I just had a conversation with our, we have someone internally here who is Irish. She grew up in Ireland. He said there are currently four seminarians in the entire country. Oh, my God. I believe it. That is so sad. So, look, yeah, we got our issues here. We need, like, reverse missionaries. What are we doing? The Irish sent all the missionaries. Now, we need to send all the missionaries. Well, I asked them, like, who are the, like, you got four seminarians.

Who are the priests in Ireland? Yeah. A Catholic country is like, oh, they all come from Africa. They're all African or Indian, because there's so many seminarians there. Like, Indian seminaries can keep kicked out. And, like, I know, I speak from personal experience. We have a lot of them, too. We have a lot of African and Indian priests. Come over to serve us. Yeah, same in the Northeast.

What are they doing there? We got to figure it out. I mean, there's a lot of them, for sure, so a numbers game is probably going to be good, but clearly, they are kicking out. I think there was like a Bible verse about that. It's like how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom. It has a lot to do with it. We're just doing really well. There is something there. Correct. But anyway, it is very frustrating to see Weisenberger's actions, you know, three different things that he has done.

I think it has caused division in his diocese. So, I pray for... So, obviously, these three professors, all their families, I pray for the students that all of a sudden they think, wait a minute, now what happened? I went to this seminar for some of these great professors, and now I've got to wonder what's going on. I pray for them. I pray for the people in the Archdiocese of Detroit.

You know, some conservers are grumpy that, oh, the previous archbishop wasn't solid or conservative enough. Like, yeah, well, watch what you say, brother. Vigneron was solid. I like Vigneron, but he had his, you know, folks on the right, oh, he's not good enough. Yeah, I mean, that's always, that's always, can I also ask, you mentioned that Sacred Heart Major Seminary was really bad in the 80s, and then it had a renaissance. So, does that suggest, and first off, what happened there?

How did it get good again? And then, does it also suggest you? Like, on a positive note, things could change rather quickly? Things can change. I mean, the thing is, sometimes you have, you know, institutions that completely crop up from, you know, have to be started from anew. Word on Fire Ministries, Avem Real University, right? But there are others. Sometimes it is harder to do this, but sometimes you can have an institution that comes along and it gets reformed. You know, your alma mater, Catholic University of America, that used to be horrendous in the 60s and 70s.

60s, 70s, 80s. And it turned around. And then, Franciscan University, you know, was turned around as well. So, you get these places where it can happen through a lot of hard work and prayer. You can change institutions, and Sacred Heart Major Seminary had done that, and now it seems like some of the lights are going to be snuffed out. Well, was that a Benedict initiative? Because I thought Benedict came in and really cleaned house. Well, you know, with Sacred Heart Major Seminary, I think I give a lot of credit to Cardinal Maida, you know.

So, I mean, I can't speak to... I don't know a ton of it. I just know it was a considerable improvement. Interesting. Yeah, I feel like I have a lot to learn in that regard. Okay, good news, Erika.

All right. I just love this. So, we just had an announcement last week that in the coming months, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will relocate more than half of its D.C.-based employees to five different regional hubs across the country. So, yes, the people who are supposed to be serving our agricultural needs, our farmers, are going to go live nearer to the farmers, and I just love this kind of common sense. Reworking of federal agencies. This blew my mind. You talked about this for many years on the Josh Hobby Horse.

This is a Josh Hobby Horse. This is a Josh Hobby Horse. So, 4,600 USDA employees reside in D.C. as of last week, and it had grown 8% during the Biden administration, all of the growth being in D.C., all of it with a 15% salary increase. I'm like, 15%? That sounds fantastic. But Brooke Rollins. ...has announced that roughly 2,000 employees can remain in D.C., but the other 2,600 will be dispersed to Raleigh, North Carolina, Kansas City, Missouri, Indianapolis, Indiana, so you might be getting some new neighbors, Tom, Fort Collins, Colorado, and Salt Lake City, Utah.

They are also... Going to vacate buildings in D.C. and end the leases. Remember, what was the percentage, Josh? How many federal buildings in D.C. are empty? It is like 41%. It was just insane waste of money. So, this is just cutting waste, cutting spending, and getting people where they should be. Because they are all at work remote, and so they are home in Manassas instead of this massive building we have. If you are not going to be in here. Let's sell this building and have a smaller building.

Exactly. I know. Josh, the prophecy continues to come true. You got to move them out, man. You said Secretary of Interior should be at Montana? I can't remember where he is. Why not? In the interior, like the name says. It would make sense.

I got, so... Again, we're on the thrift grind here in my house. My wife finds a hat at the Goodwill Bins called Weston County Sportsman Club with a crossed rifle shotgun and a pistol on it, and you bet that we snagged that one. I found out that's from Wyoming. It is a legitimate sporting club in Wyoming where you can shoot guns, so cool artifact. I'm sure Kelsey's been there. Oh, we're going to talk to Kelsey about that, actually. Our new president is a Wyoming native.

She wants me to go visit a farm out there. I would love to go to Wyoming. There are so many places I want to go in this country. Wyoming, definitely one of them. That is a bucket list. Alaska, the other. Why don't we talk about Alaska? I think, didn't Kelsey meet someone up there? She is like, oh, you guys should come out. It is the only state I have amended. Let's do it. LOOPcast live for the polar bears.

LOOPcast stream from Alaska. We got a question from the chat. What is the government going to do with all of the Agriculture Department buildings? Do we know? They just ended the leases, so the people who own the buildings will have to figure out what are we going to do with our buildings. I imagine rent probably got cheaper. Yeah. Rent definitely got cheaper. Saving money. I like it.

All right, Josh, good news. Well, hey, the good news piles up. I mean, Planned Parenthood has closed 19 centers this year, you know, breakdown of this. There's in lots of different states, too. Four in Michigan, which one even in the city I live in. Indiana had one closed. Iowa had four closed. Minnesota, four. New York, one. Ohio, two. Texas, one. Utah, two of them closed. So, good to hear. Let's keep this going. I think the loss of federal funds, we are going to see this start to accelerate in the coming months.

I mean, we are out of the woods yet. I mean, that is why Plain Point has switched to. You know, they are big on promoting killing your baby through pills and through the mail, and they got the Biden administration to completely change rules on that, so we still have a fight in for us, but it is nice not to have them own property out in the community and like that, so we will take it. Josh, did you see that article about Planned Parenthood having basically a crisis at this point of switching its business model to double down on the gender stuff?

Right, and of course, the problem with the gender stuff is now we have a Trump administration that is basically going to be telling these hospitals, you are in charge of, you are going to lose all this federal funding if you continue to do these gender surgeries. And they are closing. They are stopping. Yeah, they are stopping. LA, Charlotte, Chicago, boom, boom, boom, boom, all across the board. It is great. And so, yeah, maybe Planned Parenthood is like, hey, how can we still make money by promoting evil?

Let us get involved in this. It is crazy. That shift is crazy, because I remember, I think his name is like Dr. Ethan something. He was a doctor in Texas that blew the whistle on. Ethan Heim. Yeah, Ethan Heim. Oh, my. Talk about different treatment from like sending the Department of Justice staff or a guy saying, hey, we're mutilating children, to be like, all right, we're going to try to throw you in jail for the rest of your life, and then be like, all right, we're shutting all these places down.

One administration change. Can't give Trump administration enough credit. Your vote mattered, guys. Keep voting. No, there's goods and bads. That's... Certainly one of the goods. I'll continue to give Trump credit on that one. Okay, quick update on mine. So, if those aren't familiar, we've covered it a few times on the podcast, but Trent Horn, his wife, she had a large brain tumor, and so I know a lot of you have been praying for her. I've been thinking about their family. So, we got an update.

She's going home from the hospital today, but is suffering from aphasia. Lauren's intelligence, memory, and personality are intact, but she had a very hard time. Speaking and writing, thank you for all the prayers, and please continue to pray for her as she undergoes therapy to regain the blessing of her voice. Those who don't know Trent, he's a fantastic apologist. He does a great job. He's one of those guys where Kind of like you know them by their fruits. I feel like all the people that have talked to me, like I love Trent Horn, are all great people, have gotten a lot of value out of what he does.

So, it has been kind of cool to see everyone kind of come together to be like, rally support, pray. I think they have handled it as good as you possibly could, putting on this kind of front. So, continue to pray for the Horn family, and I was encouraged to see that the surgery went well. I really have a hard time thinking about if my wife lost her ability to speak or write.

How devastating that would be. So, happy to hear that, but continue to pray for the horns. So, that would be my good news section. Sweet. So, Josh, right around the corner around here, this is something that reached me, too. I have a lot of people in Michigan texting me about this. So, there's a stabbing in Traverse City. So, I can run a little bit of the background if you want me to. Well, I mean, just to help people out here real quick, I mean, Traverse City is a resort town.

You know, 7,000, 8,000 people, or maybe 12,000 people by now, I don't know. It's got a nice airport. You can zip in from Chicago or Detroit or whatever, but tons of people come up here where I'm at in Petoskey or Traverse City.

You know, I kind of grouse about the traffic because now all these people from Detroit and Chicago and Indianapolis are coming up somewhere nice. I mean, it's a small town. It's still a small town, and you don't expect something like this. I had a lot of people texting me, like, wait a minute, isn't this near you? I'm like, yeah, I mean, I guess. It's an hour away. It's kind of freaky, but by the way, I just want to say something about this.

The liberals, whenever there's discussions about, like, gun control, the liberals are like, well, yeah. You NRA types, you love guns. You don't want Blackstone guns. Yeah, I do. And by the way, the hero in this case was a black guy who's at the Walmart, pulls out his gun, and stops this guy from stabbing more people. So, thank you very much, Derek Perry. I will buy you a beer any day. This guy's awesome. He pulls out the gun, and then all the other barbecue dads at the Walmart are like, okay, let's go.

We can stop this guy. So, it is kind of striking because you are like, okay, you expect something like this in Detroit, Chicago, a guy coming in and stabbing, and what is going on, but thank you to Derek Perry. What a hero.

Yeah, former Marine, too, I think, from what I saw. The video is pretty graphic, but so I kept looking at the story, and like, he stabbed 11 people. The suspect, I think right now, identified Bradford James Gill. He entered this Walmart and stabbed 11 people. I think the more we're learning about him, I think he was saying he's a border green Christian, saying some really bizarre stuff about Jesus and prophecy and whatnot. But we had a deputy arrive in approximately three minutes.

Um, and people intervened in the parking lot at that point, and you can kind of see here in the picture, he had a gun and forced him over there. I, this guy's amazing restraint for not shooting this guy. Yeah, for not shooting him. I can't believe that he was able to not, but he was barking at him, had him stay there until the cops got there, so, um. Yeah, it almost sounded like, because so many people got stabbed, it sounds like a headline from the United Kingdom, where they don't have guns, but no one died, thankfully.

A couple people in serious condition, but yeah, no one's died. Yeah, but just strange, like Josh, you set up the context. Traverse City is one of the bougiest resort towns in Michigan, and to see this kind of thing happening. Right, it is where Pete Buttigieg lives now, right? Oh, right. Gearing up for a run, for sure. I see him all over now on the internet.

Okay, we got a good question straight for Erika, actually. Right from the chat. Shout out to Qdysius, a staple member of the chat. My mom is looking for a book recommendation to help her marriage with my atheist father. Erika, do you have any recommendations on Catholic sources slash books to help with that, or maybe just advice on approach?

Wow, that's hard. So, book recommendations for specific people are really hard. For your atheist father, I would say If he's interested in learning more about the faith, like, on an intellectual level, like, I would say Peter Kreeft, for sure. Just very readable, easy to go in. Yeah, if you're looking for books for your mom to deal with the situation, I'm going to have to go look it up, but there is, oh, someone in the chat will know this, probably. There's the woman who's married to an atheist.

Oh, my gosh. That is going to drive me. Give me two minutes. I am going to look up. Look it up during Josh's talk. Oh, my gosh. Yes. Atheist, Catholic, all right, and yes, Elizabeth Lassure. Yes, that's it. Shout out, Rosie. Nailed it. Okay. Rosie, you're awesome. Yeah, it's Elizabeth Lassure. Anything by her, she's a French Catholic woman whose writings later, after her death, her husband Felix converted to the Catholic faith and actually became a priest. So, yeah, Secret Diary of Elizabeth Lassure.

See, the chat knew it. You guys are the best. Dang. What a poll there. Oh, yeah. Emily had it too in the chat. Emily, I got you. Yeah. Can I ask a broader question beyond specific books? I feel like a lot of people, it's interesting, family dynamics-wise, when you have people that either aren't Christian, maybe explicitly atheist.

But you have kind of a conversion or conviction at some point in your life, and then it's like, well, there's weird dynamics here. I'm not sure how to approach it. I'm sure everyone has an example like this in their life of someone. Yeah. Do you have good advice for how to approach that situation or personal experience in that regard?

Either. Yeah. I mean, well, you know, a good friend of mine, she grew up Catholic, and she is Christian, but she is not Catholic anymore, and we are friends, and so I just like, in casual conversation, because it got brought up, I am like, hey, you know, anytime you want to come on back, the water is nice and warm, and we have like a 12-step program, and you know, you kind of laugh or whatever, but it is like, no, but I mean, you know, you are kind of like, it is said with a little bit of...

You know, it's met with humor, but it's kind of like serious, like, you know, yeah, actually, I do care enough about you that I do want you here with us, you know, on the team. That was, you know, trying to bring someone who's already Christian into the Catholic faith.

It is different than with the atheists or whatever, but I still kind of feel like some of that light-hearted confidence can be kind of good. It can be kind of disarming in a sense, like, what? And so, when the time does come, you have expressed and shown a little openness to wanting to talk about this.

You can even say, like, that is what I am saying, when you first broach it, you can be like, you know, obviously. I am not trying to hit you over the head with something like this, but if you ever did want to talk about it, just let me know. I find that approach to be pretty good. The biggest thing for me is to always remember, like, I am the oracle. I like to brag. I am so big, whatever. But ultimately, if you read the Gospels, Jesus talks so much about how much he values our humility.

And when it comes to something like this, realize, you know, yes, you would love to come up with that really awesome idea or way of saying something that would bring that person back into the faith, right? But the Holy Spirit is the author of every conversion. You are supposed to be there. You participate. You try to open up the window of opportunity when you can, but ultimately, just to die to yourself and realize it is not necessarily your wunderkind IQ or something like that, or turn a phrase that is going to magically do it.

Just the generosity of Spirit, like, hey, if you ever want to talk about this. Yeah, and I think I have, you know, an experience just this last weekend of this kind of thing, and my husband had to remind me, he's like, you know, your job wasn't to have, like, the big, deep conversation and to, like, make everything happen. It was just to show up and be there, and I think that's what Josh was getting at. Like, just, if you're in a relationship, especially, put in the time, especially in the family, like, it could be years.

It could, like, in the case of Elizabeth Lassure, like, It could be after your death. You might not see the fruits of this, but God is pursuing them even harder than you could ever. If you think you desire for them to be one with Christ on the cross, I mean, it pales in comparison to God's pursuit of them, and you're just a little piece of their whole journey in their life. What Emily just said in the chat, I've tried to do this with my mom, who's a fallen-away Catholic, and I've decided she's a person, not a project.

Yes, that is absolutely it. Because, after all, one of the best things I think Pope Benedict ever said was he talked about Christianity. It is not a set of rules. It is a love story. It is about the person of Jesus Christ. That is what this is all about. Yes, 100%. And I think, too, people are bringing up the spiritual warfare dimension of this. Behind the scenes, we are fasting and praying. I cannot talk anymore. We are fasting and praying.

For the conversion of all souls, right, and the salvation of all souls constantly, and that is not nothing, right? It feels like nothing, especially after like 20, 25 years, and you are like, nothing has changed, and you don't know that. How is that though? Maybe it has, and you just don't see it yet. So, people's names in the chat are so funny. Cigar mode. Cigar mode. Especially young men who came of age during the vid and now trust nothing, so left to the Catholic Church, need ways to win them back.

I'm actually, like, the least concerned about the young men. Well, the statistics suggest they're the ones coming back the fastest. And it's precisely because everything is starting to feel... I think I was talking about this with Josh on Friday about AI, like... I think there was a veneer of the internet being appealing because you thought it was real to an extent. Like, what was going on was authentic. And in the early days, I think it was more true than it is now.

Like, there's just so much bot activity, AI stories now getting, like, twisted immediately or something come out and proven false. And so, it's all being, most of it's being revealed as actually kind of inauthentic. So, I think in the absence or the vacuum of something that you believe is true. There is a new premium on things that are real.

Yeah, you want an authentic connection. Yeah, and I'm at an interesting point in my life now where I'm like five years removed from college. I have two kids, and so now I'm at the point where people's grand plans that I think they had in college and left are now kind of like falling away, and you're just left with a very – you have to pretty much embrace or figure out where you are, and it maybe wasn't where you thought you would be.

Almost in every case, it's not where you thought you would be. And then, what is actually important? And so, I'm having these really interesting conversations with young men my age about where their priorities, what happens, and I'm almost shocked in a lot of cases. Like, the conversations I had when I was 22 are completely different than the conversations I'm having when I'm 27. And you realize that the one constant that everyone's dealing with there is life is really hard, and it sucks.

Like, there's so many things that are hard about life right now, especially as a young man, but as a young woman, it's funny, Erika, your last, the deep. Oh, gosh. In cell YouTube, people are not thrilled. Yeah, we touched a nerve, did we not? Yes. We did. We touched a nerve, but what, at the end of the day, for me personally, has changed from when I'm 22 to 27 is I now, more than ever, so deeply believe and have had personal, real experiences with the body of Christ through the sacraments, but through the people around me, and through those experiences have pushed me much further in a deeper, more rooted faith.

In Jesus Christ in particular, the person of. I mean, even just like watching The Chosen right now, and say what you want about The Chosen. The cool thing to me is I see myself in the Sanhedrin. I see myself in the disciples. I see myself as like the fishermen who have nothing to do with this. Like, if Jesus came, how would that affect me? And I feel like I'd be reacting pretty similar to all those people. It's a humbling moment, but the key to all of it is we're nowhere, nothing.

Without Jesus Christ, there is no way to get around the pain of life. Catholicism is just basically continually acknowledging pain over and over and over again, but the reality is you should expect nothing different, and we already had someone that took on that pain and sanctified it. I mean, the Catholic Church has the most authentic and sophisticated philosophy and theology of suffering.

It has a purpose. It can be redeemed. It has meaning. Yeah, and it is funny what you are talking about. The cigar mode young men are converting. The ones we lost, though, are more wounded by the McCarrick issues, lies about it, and that the churches are closed, etc. And that is why I am actually less concerned about the young men and more concerned about people that have now been damaged and are older and are getting more set in their ways. I think it is going to be much more challenging for those people to potentially come back.

That is a whole conversation entirely, but I think a lot to be happy about. Maybe a deep dive. Maybe a deep dive. If you want to wander back into the YouTube algorithm. Oh, yeah. Here we go. Go check that one out, by the way. And people who are listening to this now, go watch it, if you haven't, and tell me what you think. I was like, I have a feeling this is going to scratch a certain part of the algorithm. Yep, yep.

It sure did. But I guess now you have to go see for yourselves. I didn't think the end message was bad. Maybe people didn't get to it. I don't know. Another joy in the day. No, we want to, yeah, because Tom and I definitely, Tom had an emotional reaction to the intro to the last deep dive about the young man. I was. Make sure you go watch it. We really do want to hear it. The point of those is to get the conversation rolling, and it is rolling.

Oh, it is rolling. Maybe I will stick to sourdough this week. I am not sure. Sourdough is chill. I am really bad at it. Josh. You're up, Charles. Okay, so this graph was published by Vox, which is a lefty outfit, but it's not really a political thing, necessarily. We saw, you know, if you look at the number of serial killers in each decade, all of a sudden, it goes, it's pretty standard for about six decades, and all of a sudden, 60s, 70s, and 80s, whoom, it goes way up.

It's a practically 700 serial killers, and then it comes crashing down in the 90s, 2000, and 2010. What happened? What's the theory? Well, first, let's think about why it exploded in the 1960s. A serial killer with the international, or with the nationwide network of freeways and cars and mobility gave this ability for you to go from town to town, and these serial killers could, you know, flee justice if they wanted to. And so, you had, you know, again, the freeway system was a tremendous boon, but this was a negative consequence of this, right?

So, there is that, but by the 1980, like what, 1981 or so, was the first time that we actually figured out how to do DNA testing, and it took until 1987, we had the first person who was actually convicted based on DNA, so you are able to track the people who are killing, so they might get away with one or two killings, but they are not getting that third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, right? And so, and then there is a lot more.

We had surveillance cameras around, so we're able to catch people, you know, doing stuff. So, technology caught up with it. So, the first wave was sort of enabled because the increased mobility that we had in the 60s. And then the technology picks up in the 80s, 90s, where we're able to catch these guys a lot better. Well, and then the internet and different police departments being able to communicate with each other. Yeah, that's definitely a last one. I 100% agree. The last 25 years with the internet, police departments, the FBI, and all that other stuff, being able to exchange information much more rapidly than they ever have been able to do before.

One of the benefits. So, I mean, this is one of those things where it is like, wow, what happened? I mean, there is a staple of this, you know, the son of Sam, you know, all these guys in the 70s that have terrorized the cities of New York or San Francisco.

Boston Strangler, a lot less of this stuff. Again, there's a lot of other areas of society that have gotten worse, but this is one where the technology has helped us catch some really bad people before they could do it. And phones, yes. iPhones, for sure. And phones, yeah. I can't remember if I talked about it on here, but someone did a dramatization of a famous serial killer that was on, was it The Dating Show? Yep, I remember that. And I forget the guy's name, but he went on a massive rampage, and he actually was on the dating show.

It was like three bachelors and one bachelorette, and it's, you know, ridiculous, goofy, daytime television, and he won the show, and if you win, you go on a date with the person, and the person, I believe, canceled it before. The girl did. It was like, ah, something's off about this guy, and left, and then you find out later he had murdered, like, assaulted, sexually assaulted and murdered, like, Over 100 people, probably. And then I was kind of looking into that more, kind of like this chart.

Dude, it must have been so easy to be a serial killer back in the day. Not that that was my takeaway. That was kind of my takeaway from the movie. I was like, no police departments talk to each other. Clearly, they didn't run background checks if this guy is getting on, which, like, how could you? There was no record. There wasn't a nationwide database, like, in 1961.

Right, and Americans were so comfortable with their kids. Like, now you have, your parents are with you pretty much everywhere, so your kids could walk around wherever. They could disappear for a day. You wouldn't even bat an eye, and you never knew where they were. I was like, I'm surprised there weren't more, honestly, at that point. Maybe it's... Well, here is the thing. Kidnappings is a different story. So, like in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, even in bigger cities like New York or whatever, there were still tight-knit neighborhoods, and the best security system there is is Italian grandmothers looking out the door and making sure the kids are all right.

Stay-at-home moms. Well, the stay-at-home mom, at least the mom stopped staying at home. I am not trying to get into a fight here, but when more women entered the workforce, then you had neighborhoods that All the adults were kind of gone, and we still had this spirit where kids could just roam wherever they wanted to do. So, actually, you know, people, there were more kidnappings in the 70s and 80s than there are now.

And so, that is why my generation that grew up in that time, they are like, they are clinging on to their kids a little too much, I get it, but there is that fear, and that is the rationale.

So, we want to try to encourage people, okay, yes, take your kids to the park, don't try to helicopter them everywhere, let them have a fun time to play, but it's not nothing, you know, so, I mean, it would be nice if the hope, I think, with remote work would be that more moms could work from remote and be at home, and the neighborhoods could be a little bit more like they used to be instead of just ghost towns with just kids, you know.

Now, the kids just stay inside. Yeah. Definitely probably gone too far. Yeah. The pendulum has swung. Time to come back a little bit, right? I had a serial killer experience myself. Do you remember, Josh, the DC sniper? What? Are we getting insane Erika lore right now? That guy went after the Home Depot where I used to shop. Yep. Yeah, it was crazy. So, this was my senior year of college. I was at school in D.C., Catholic University of America, and this shooting started happening.

So, Pogo, you're too little to remember, but they had no idea what was happening or who was doing this, but there would be like a sniper shot. At random places around the city, a couple in Northern Virginia as well, they ended up killing 17 people, and what had happened was, it was this older guy, and I looked up the, yeah, so John Allen Muhammad and Leboid Malvo, who was only 17 years old, so an older guy and 17-year-old kid, they had retrofitted the bottom of a white delivery van, like a big van, and they could lie in the bottom of it, shoot out the back.

And just take someone out and then drive away, because it was a white delivery van, like no one's noticing it. But I remember being on campus, this was like a three-week period, these sniper shootings were happening, and the campus was just like, You can walk to class if you want, but just be careful. But you're like, be careful? What? Like, how do you be careful when there's random snipers? Okay, wait. Did you know why? Did they ever figure out?

They ended up, when they finally caught up with them, what was the, they didn't really have like a motive other than he wanted to kill, he was estranged from his ex-wife. Right? And then, like, he got mad, so he's going to, like, get this kid to help kill people, and they're going to try and be, like, in a movie, basically, or, like, in a video game.

Yeah, it was just insanity. Grand Theft Auto before Grand Theft Auto. And in the comments, someone was talking about John Wayne Gacy, and he was in an Italian neighborhood, and they didn't seem to notice him. I got a funny little story about that.

Yeah, my college roommate actually went to a birthday party, and the clown that came to the John Wayne Gacy. No. This is before he started on his thing, and so he's got a photograph of everyone with the clown, so he brought it to class. Holy cannoli. You guys have too many personal experiences. We have lived, Josh.

Someday, you too will have stories like this. Well, I do. I live in the same town as he strangled people. Yeah. The Westfield Strangler or something. Or, he was an Indianapolis-based strangler. He would go and he'd pick up vagrant prostitutes, male prostitutes, I think, and he would take them back and strangle them and bury them in his backyard. He used to own a Kmart, and someone just bought a house on the guys. Place. So, that's new lore. There's a documentary on it.

I think it's like a Hulu doc. Well, we pray for the victims. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're getting real good. Okay, we're getting a little bit sparky over here. We're getting real good. I know. I started it. My fault. Yeah, that's on you. That's on you. Salvation of souls. Good job. That's on you. Erika, your twasn't. Yeah, I feel like I can't come out of that very well, but I'm just excited because About this, you know, about 11 months from now, we should be getting an amazing new Katonji Brown Jackson dissent, because we have a case coming up before the Supreme Court this fall.

They just added it to their docket. This was the America First Policy Institute asked the Supreme Court to hear the case of two families from Colorado whose daughters were exposed to transgender ideology, and you're like, well, duh, it's Colorado Public School. Of course they're exposed, but this is how they did it. There was an art teacher who started an art club after school at the elementary school. This was a 12-year-old girl for one of the families. They started an art club, so they sent all the parents an email being, we're going to have art club after school.

And the parents were like, great, we love art club. Like, that sounds awesome. Little did the parents know that it was actually a GSA, Gay Straight Awareness Club. Where the guest speaker, where the art teacher got all the kids in the room and said, whatever happens in here or is said in here stays in here. Do not tell your parents anything that goes on here.

And they get in these speakers, and they start telling the 12-year-old girls, how many 12-year-old girls in the chat were comfortable with your body when you were 12? That's a no. That's a none of us. So, they're like, if you're not comfortable with your body and the changes it's going through, maybe you're not a girl. Maybe you're trapped in a girl's body. And this family is suing. They brought the case as emotional damage. Of course, the child is like, yeah, I'm not comfortable in my body.

And they can't tell mom, because the teacher who they love, their art teacher, It says, don't tell mom, but we're going to start transitioning you socially, secretly at school. So, this case, yes, it has made it all the way to the Supreme Court. We should get some interesting arguments, but I'm just excited. The Supreme Court cannot lay down a punishment hard enough for that. Josh, I don't know how you're able to laugh at that. This fills me with a burning rage that I don't think there's enough punishment for.

If the words, don't tell your parents, is enough, then just. I can't even believe that this is even happening in our country. You know, there's even a debate about this. And that it has to go to the Supreme Court. I have words with those people.

Good. I'm glad the Supreme Court is handling it, not me. Seriously. I don't think there's a punishment worse enough for people that do things like this. Yeah. Crazy. I agree. Alright, can I... We really got to start coordinating. If you're going to go serial killer, and then secret transitions, and then I got to go with the Vatican to host hot priests story. Oh, no. So, listen, I'm going to get ahead of this one, okay? Oh, come on, man.

New York Post, Vatican to host, quote, hot priests, influencers who spread the word of God to younger faithful as numbers slump. What an insane headline. Yeah. What are we doing, guys? New York Post, what are we doing? I confirmed with our news team here internally, the Vatican has nothing to do with this. Don't worry. But, I don't know what would cause someone, they like go through these, like Father Giuseppe, Fusari, or whatever, bodybuilding, silver, I don't like the way you're describing them.

Even if they present themselves, I don't even know. I don't even look into these guys. I can tell you, when I was in Rome this spring, I'm going around all these different shops, and there was like a calendar of priests. I'm like, what the heck is this? I saw that too.

Does not, you're right, does not have the approval of the church. This is a rogue project, but thanks, New York Post. And as numbers slump, it's like, what are we, Stephen Colbert? What is this? Yeah, it's like, we're the tenacious, the largest global church in the world, the Catholic Church, is like, okay, guys, if anyone's wondering, if anyone from the New York Post is asking, hot priests are not the way back, okay, or just social media priests, like, no, I don't want anything to do with this.

You know, if they want to go to the Vatican, they go to the Vatican. I don't know how they're branding themselves. No. And then Alejandro said like 20 years ago they tried this, which I know nothing about this. I just, my sense is no, this isn't going to win. This is not the message to, this is going to be a big fat.

Thumbs down for me. Thumbs down. I heard about the calendars, but... We need to let it get out, because, you know, again, this is one of those things where the mainstream media reports on it, and your post is center-right. It is not like super conservative, but they are tabloidy. They love this whole tabloidy thing. They are Catholic illiterate. Like, yeah, they are totally Catholic illiterate. Oh, they know what they are doing. They love headlines like this. Yeah, but they wrote this based on a Telegraph article, which, you know, not to say the Telegraph so much.

It's better, but I'm just like, guys, why would anyone think that this is a part of some broad Catholic effort? Why would you even attach that to the church, especially considering all the... It would be nice if the Catholic Church had more brand control.

Yeah, I will say that many times. Pope Leo has been good at utilizing social media so far, I will say. So far, so good. Yeah, at least he... Kind of what we talk about with Trump all the time. He's controlling the message. He's speaking from his account on stuff that people care about. I think he was just speaking out about, there's another, like, slaughter in Africa of Christians that he spoke out about, which is disgusting, and pray for him. It's hard to imagine dealing with that.

Jeez. But anyway, great show, guys. Welcome back on Monday. If you want to help us out, go check out Cunningham Advisors. Thank you for sponsoring this episode. Go watch Erika's last episode. We're going to have a meeting about it. We're going to go through the numbers. We have a debriefing. Can everyone pray for me? Because I have to sit down with four young men this afternoon and talk about my video about men.

I don't want to slander Jim. We got men from all demographics represented there. But yeah, anyway, we're going to have a meeting about that. We got the next one coming out, so go check out the deep. Definitely one of my favorite things we do as a reason. Erika is a star. So, go check that one out. Join the Champions Club. Best way to support us, CatholicVote.org. Subscribe here on YouTube, so you can catch all of that, but also Apple Podcasts, Spotify.

Leave us some reviews. That helps us out a lot, but we do pray every episode now, so we got our daily prayer today. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Praise God in his holy place. Praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his powerful deeds. Praise his surpassing greatness. Oh, praise him with the sound of trumpet. Praise him with lute and harp. Praise Him with timbrel and dance. Praise Him with strings and pipes. Oh, praise Him with resounding cymbals.

Praise Him with the clashing of cymbals. Let everything that lives and breathes give praise to the Lord. Amen. St. Thomas More, St. Fidelis, Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us, and we'll see you guys on Wednesday for another great episode. Peace.